Lisa Cholodenko Makes Some “High Art”

Lisa Cholodenko Makes Some "High Art"

Lisa Cholodenko makes an impressive feature directorial debut with theintriguing “High Art,” a gritty character piece that centers around Sid(Radha Mitchell), a young magazine editor who’s gradually drawn into thelife of her drug-abusing neighbor Lucy (Ally Sheedy), a photographer whodeliberately turned her back on a promising career, opting instead totake a self-destructive route with her junkie lover Greta (PatriciaClarkson). The film premiered at Sundance earlier this year, where itreceived strong critical praise, a screenwriting award and was quicklypicked up by October Films.

Much of the film’s attention comes from the striking presence of AllySheedy, who, following her quick rise to fame as one of the ‘80’s-bredbrat Packers, has spent much of the 90’s working in largely unseenfeatures and TV movies. Here she is a stark revelation in a role thatcould potentially redefine her career. Cholodenko, who previously workedas an assistant editor on such features as “Boyz N the Hood” and “To DieFor,” began writing this project while working on her MFA at ColumbiaUniversity.

indieWIRE: Much of this film takes place at a magazine. Did you everwork in the magazine world?

Lisa Cholodenko: No, I didn’t work in the magazine world, but I had alot of different jobs and I feel like the politics and the powerstructures are probably not dissimilar to what would go on at a popculture mag, or a fine art photography mag like “Frame.” I thought itwas a good place for me to anchor the film because of the Lucy [AllySheedy] character and also because of things that I wanted to explorewith the Sid [Radha Mitchell] character. So it just seemed like anatural place to anchor the film. I felt like I wanted to show thepolitics in a way that anybody sort of irrespective of what you docareerwise could identify with that.

iW: When did you begin working on the project?

Cholodenko: I started writing it when I was a student at Columbia. I wasin my second year of film school in fall of ’94. I started writing it ina writing workshop which was required. In the midst of all that I wasmaking short films and teaching and trying to get through graduateschool. So it wasn’t a full time endeavor. Then once I finished allthose obligations, I was still really interested in the story and feltlike there was more I could do with it. It was around ’96 when[producers] Dolly Hall and Jeff Levy-Hinte became involved and reallywanted to make it happen and we just buckled down and did revisions.

iW: How did you expect people to react to it when it first screened atSundance?

Cholodenko: When we were making it and cutting it, I always felt like ithad a kind of honesty to it that was effective for me. But I knew alsothat it had a pace and a tone that might not work for general audiences.I was concerned about it. I think its much more European in itsapproach. It’s languid, it takes awhile for it to unfold. I think I wassort of prepared for it not to work in terms of reaching audiences. So Ican’t tell you how thrilling and satisfying it is to know that peopleare interested in looking at films like this. All the way through, fromgetting into Sundance, to the response there, to the positivejournalists response and getting to Cannes. I mean, all the way through,it’s just been amazing. It makes me kind of hopeful.

iW: Ally Sheedy’s character had all the opportunities of becomingsuccessful, yet she turns her back on it and chooses, instead, aself-destructive route.

Cholodenko: I think the film started out more as a social critique. Ireally wanted to, I think, draw that out of the film. The Lucycharacter embodied that conflict between pure art making and commerce,or the compromises that you have to make to be in the commercial realm.The more I got involved in drawing that character out, it became clearerand clearer that she would have to have some sort of self-destructivenature not to be able to cope with that. So it came from a more topicalframework and then I widdled it down and got into the nuances of thatcharacter and that’s what she became. So, it didn’t start with mesetting out to write a self-destructive character.

iW: This is the best work Sheedy’s done in years. How did you end upcasting her in the role?

Cholodenko: Radha Mitchell’s agent knew Ally. He wasn’t representingher. He phoned Ally when he got the script and said, “Look I have thisscript and I don’t know if anybody’s shown it to you, but it’s a prettygreat part. I think you’d be interested in it. I’m not your agent so Ican’t do the leg work. But if you’re interested, come by, I’ll copy itfor you and you can sort of pursue it on your own.” Which she did. Shecalled the casting director in New York and she phoned me at home. Shesaid, “I love this character. I love this story. It’s beautiful. Ireally want to put myself on a plane and come read for you guys.” Whichshe did. At the time, I didn’t really know who she was. I mean, I knewvaguely the associations with the Brat Pack, but I had never seen “TheBreakfast Club,” and I didn’t know her work. So it’s kind of clean in away.

iW: You made her character very ambiguous, which works well for thefilm.

Cholodenko: I wanted to draw Lucy’s character in a way that we couldidentify with Sid’s attraction. There’s this enigmatic quality to Lucythat I think is compelling to Sid. I know, as the author of thatcharacter, I felt compelled to that character. This sort of intensecharacter that you can’t truly get a grip on, but when present isincredibly present. I think those are the things that make for thatconfusion or passion. I really didn’t want to give too much of her away.

iW: Did you feel like the Lucy and Sid characters were in love with eachother?

Cholodenko: I felt like they were walking that really weird fine linebetween being sort of obsessed or smitten or drawn. All those things.That kind of informed desire. I think Sid might’ve gotten confused aboutwhat love is and what exactly her feelings were for Lucy. But I wantedto illustrate that the draw had become increasingly more intense forher. In a way, in that scene in the bedroom, I wanted to show that shesays “I think I’m in love with you.” But really what she’s saying is “Ithink I’m totally overwhelmed in my feeling for you or appreciation foryou or rapture for you.” That’s the best way I can describe it. The filmobviously has a tragic ending. I felt all the way through that it wouldbe really false to have Sid and Lucy get in a car and drive off into thesunset. I never saw them as being a viable couple.

iW: It also would have felt false if Lucy’s career had taken off and shebecame successful.

Cholodenko: Right. And I think she was a villain all the way through andit was sort of a last gasp to kind of repossess herself and wake up. Butfor Lucy I don’t think it was like a “Wow, here’s this opportunity I’vebeen waiting for for so long. Make it happen for me, baby.” It was like,”God, your presence is showing me really how low I’ve gotten in my ownreality.” It was more about those things, it was more about personalthings.

iW: Patricia Clarkson is great in the film. Where did you find her?

Cholodenko: I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t write the role for her.We were having a really rough time casting that character. There was apoint that was incredibly despairing and I thought I’d written acharacter that I won’t be able to find. It’s just too bizarre andcomplicated. I didn’t have a long time to cast and I just couldn’t find[the right] person. We did an emergency casting session on a Saturday.It was like five days before we started shooting and in came PattyClarkson. She read and my jaw just dropped. She’s sexy and she lookedright. She can pull off that sexy raunchy thing. She was the only actorI’d seen for that role who’d gotten the tragic comic/essence of thecharacter. Everybody else was playing it really desperate and dark.